‘World’s oldest’ sex worker twins, 83, reveal what their mother did when she found out about their prof
The Fokkens twins, who are now 83 years old, are the oldest sex workers in Amsterdam
Twins hailed as the ‘world’s oldest’ sex workers have shared how their families reacted to their profession.
Louise and Martine Fokkens worked for decades as window sex workers in Amsterdam, though Louise eventually left the profession due to arthritis, saying she “could not do sexual positions.”
Now both 83, the sisters challenge common perceptions of what people might imagine a ‘window sex worker’ to look like.
Louise and Martine in 2012 (ANOEK DE GROOT/AFP via Getty Images)
Louise told The Guardian: “Our mother drove down to the canal where we were working on the street and shouted: ‘I see you! Your father is coming.’ She hit me. I was very embarrassed for my parents.”
Sadly, this wasn’t the only time a family member reacted violently. Louise recalled that in her early 20s, her husband forced her into sex work.
“I was beaten onto the streets by my husband in my early 20s,” she said. “He told me unless I earned money for him he would leave me, and I had children and loved him, so I had to do it.”
Louise and Martine have worked as “window girls,” a role in which a sex worker rents a workspace with a window facing the street so potential clients can see them.
The twins opened up about their experiences (ANOEK DE GROOT/AFP via Getty Images)
While sex work was legalized in the Netherlands in 2000 to improve regulation and working conditions, Martine believes the changes haven’t helped local workers.
“There is no point working just for tax,” she said. “That is why the girls are working from the internet and from home you are less likely to be spotted by the taxman.”
She added, “The whole family used to live off your earnings and now the tax office comes up with crazy amounts you have to pay. It is better for the pimps and the foreigners, but not the Dutch girls. The vultures came in 2000. Organised criminals. They thought, ‘ahah, it is legalized. Now we are OK.’”
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